1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to reduced oil French fried potato products which have a crisp exterior and a soft interior.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The moisture content of raw potato pieces for making French fries normally ranges from 75% to 85%, depending on environmental growing conditions and varieties. When such potato pieces are fried in oil at high temperature, some of this substantial amount of moisture present boils and results in the formation of capillary holes and voids. Oil from the fryer is absorbed into the holes and voids in the pieces. For this reason, regular French fried potato products have an oil content ranging from about 7% to 10%. The residual water content is above 10%, and generally, about 45 to 55%. It is desired to reduce to predetermined levels, both the oil content of the French fries, for health reasons, and the residual moisture content, in order to provide a product which has a crisp exterior and a soft interior. A decrease in oil content accompanied by the increase in the moisture content of the French fry would result in a soggy, unacceptable product.
The state of the art in this field may be ascertained by consideration of the following references.
Gold, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,424,591, describes a process for preparing French fried potato products having a reduced oil content by treating the potato pieces prior to frying with an aqueous solution of a methyl cellulose. In the Gold process, a thin coating of a thermal gel of methylcellulose and bound water is formed on the potato pieces. However, thermal gel-coated French fried potato products retain a considerable portion of the original moisture of the potato as bound water in the thermal gel. This high water content in the finished product causes thermal gel-coated French fries to exhibit a soggy texture which may be unacceptable to the consumer.
Nonaka et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,572, discloses a process for preparing fried potato products of decreased oil content by freezing the raw potato strips in dichlorodifluoromethane, leaching in water, frying in oil, and thereafter removing excess oil on the surface of the strips by immersing in oil-free dichlorodifluoromethane. However, dichlorodifluoromethane is considered harmful to the ozone layer and, for this reason, is not a readily available chemical product.
Morley, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,702, describes coating of insoluble dietary fibers derived from cereal bran with soluble dietary fibers of alignates, gums, pectin, mucillages and plant exudates to mask the taste and texture of the cereal bran. Other soluble dietary fibers are disclosed as useful, including biosynthetic or fermentation products such as dextran, xanthan and curdan; and chemically modified cellulose, pectin and alignate materials. Synthetic products including polyvinylpyrrolidone, carboxyvinyl polymers and polyethylene oxide polymers were mentioned as suitable soluble fibers for the purpose intended. However, there was no suggestion that any soluble dietery fiber could be used for making deep fried potato products, or particularly, for reducing oil absorption into French fried potato products and for reducing the moisture content of the potato to acceptable levels.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a reduced oil French fried potato product which has a crisp exterior and a soft interior.
Another object of the invention is to provide an economical process for making such reduced oil French fry potato products.
These and other objects and features of the invention will be made apparent from the following description of the invention.